It was just Sunday, marked my first run in 2014 – The Burden Run, at University of Malaya, Selangor, known for its greenery, curvy, uphills and slopes.
The burden run is a ten km run, with a ten kg sandbag for male and seven kg for female in the last five km, making it slightly harder than your ordinary run. No backpack, no harness or braces are allowed. Only you and your sandbag, and there were close to one thousand other participants.
The terrain was bearable to most runners – tar roads with some mix of uphill and slopes, until you run through the same trail in reverse with a sandbag, things change.

The uphill was no longer run-able, and the downhills are harder to slow down. Even running on flat road would require different technique when you are struggling to keep the sandbags on your shoulders and preventing it from swinging. Not to mention running with sandbag would require strong hips, too, and calf was especially taxed during the uphill run with sandbag.
Not only it puts endurance into the test, but also running skill, balance, shoulder strength and most of all, determination.
The number of runners who completed the run was high, as most participants know fully well what were they getting themselves into, and probably get themselves ready. It helps too when some of the participants are bootcampers from the organizer, MetconX.

There are some students of University of Malaya participated too. If you are a frequent runner who frequently join races around kuala lumpur, you will find yourself in strangers face; not everyone is willing to pick up this challenge, especially those to accustomed to run.
One might think a frequent runner will not be suitable to join this run, but it proves otherwise because winners from both men and women categories are frequent runners.

Final verdict, it is harder than i expected, I should train harder, but it is more fun than I expect, best of all, laying eyes upon and run with like minded people.
Definitely looking forward to next year’s The Burden Run, and will definitely recommend to frequent runners.

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